Pages

Monday, December 29, 2014

With New Year's Eve quickly approaching, I find myself a little bit anxious. It's always a funny kind of night for me. The past few years, I have either fallen asleep before midnight or gotten sick and slept the entire night into the next morning. I know, I know, I'm just a crazy wild woman.

I've always imagined New Year's Eve should be spent wearing a little black dress, attending a swanky rooftop party while slowly sipping wine, and watching fireworks go off at midnight. Anyone else feel this way? Or am I the only one who spends New Year's Eve in jammies, snacking the night away, watching T.V., and waiting for the ball to drop?

So, although I have a feeling I won't make it to any swanky parties this year, I thought I would still dress up my nails for the occassion. Personally, I never know what to do with my nails for New Year's Eve. However, I came up with this design recently and I think it might work to bring in the new year!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Hi everyone! Can you believe there are only a few more days left of the holiday season? I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to having Christmas dinner, having hot coca with too many marshmallows (but really, can you have too many?), fighting with my sister as she hogs the whipped cream and, watching Home Alone for the millionth time in my life. What are some of your holiday traditions?

Well, since there are only a few more days left before Christmas, I
thought I would do one last holiday mani before the end of the season.

Originally, when I thought up this design, I had planned on doing
something a bit more traditionally festive. I have seen so many colorful
holiday mani’s featuring hand painted snow scenes with reindeer and
snowmen, that I thought I would try something free handed. So how did I
end up with this design, you ask? Good question. To pull this look
together, I attempted to paint a red and gold intricate poinsettia plant
on my pointer finger…

…and failed miserably lol. After three attempts and a few laughs from my boyfriend, I decided on using a decorative bow for my pointer finger instead (because when all else fails, slap on something shiny).

I know everyone has their own challenges when it comes to doing their
nails, whether it be clean up, stamping, etc. For me, it’s definitely
free handing my nail art. As much as I love the look of free handed
designs, it always feels like a constant battle. Does anyone else feel
this way? What’s your biggest nail art related challenge?

And don’t forget, there are just a few more days left to enter my Happy Holiday’s Giveaway!

~ No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. Unfollowers will be banned from future giveaways.

~ All winning entries will be verified.

~ While I will package the items for safe shipping, On Wednesdays, We
Wear Polish cannot be held responsible for replacing items that become
damaged (i.e. broken polish) during shipping.

~ The prize packages will be mailed as shown in the above photos (in
other words, winner's cannot pick what they want from each prize group
and end up with both ILNP polishes or both Funky Finger's polishes.)

~ The giveaway will end on 12/31 at midnight. On
the morning of January 1st, two winner's will be chosen (by
raffle-copter), announced on my Facebook page, and contacted via email.
The first person to respond to my email will be able to chose which
prize they would prefer (prize 1 or prize 2). The remaining winner will
receive the remaining prize. Both winners, after being picked and
contacted, will have until 8PM (EST) on Friday the 2nd to respond and
choose their prize. Otherwise, a runner up will be chosen.

Friday, December 19, 2014

So, one thing I love about the nail art world is that it’s constantly evolving. Every few months, a new type of polish comes out or a new technique is created that everyone must have or wants to try. A few months ago, textured polishes were a big deal and a few months after that, lead lighting (a stamping technique) took center stage. Well ladies and gents, the polish God's have brought us a new craze in the form of opague multichrome flakies.

What are these shenanigans, you ask? Well, most of us know what a flakie polish is (typically, a clear polish containing transparent iridiscent glitter). Commonly, this kind of polish is used as a topcoat over a dark color for the best effect. And as a general rule, MATTE ALL THE FLAKIES. Why? Because matted flakies look awesome!

But these new flakies are a bit different. Instead of transparent flakies, some indie maker’s are using opague multichrome flakies which change color according to how they are viewed. Because the flakies are opague (instead of clear) they can be applied over light or dark polish (unlike transparent iridiscent flakies which are almost invisible over light colors).

From what I have noticed, quite a few different indie brands have started selling multichrome flakie polishes, such as Starrily, Indigo Banana's, and I Love Nail Polish
(ILNP). Although I wanted to go nuts and spend my rent money on each
brand, I decided to pick out some polishes from ILNP and Polish Me Silly
to show you a comparison between different kinds of flakie polishes.
First, I am showing off a swatch of ILNP's Ultra Chrome Flakie Polish Electric Carnival.

This polish makes me so happy. Shown here is one coat of Electric Carnival which has colorshifting opague flakies in a clear base. The most prevalent color shift for me was from yellow/green to pink/purple, but depending on your light and view, you might see a few more colors in there.

I decided to layer this flakie over black, although this polish could be worn over any color quite nicely. I added a coat of Seche Vite to really make the flakies pop. I found that the polish has a nice formula to it, not too thin or thick. Keep in mind, it is densely populated with flakies so if you are hoping to have the flakies stand out against your base, you may want to apply one thin coat. In 2-3 coats, this polish could easily stand on it's own with no base. Actually, I think that would be pretty cool.

Electric Carnival can be found on the ILNP website. It retails for $12.50 which is a little bit above the average price of a "normal" indie polish, but about average for a flakie polish. Trust me, it's totally worth it. At the moment, Electric Carnival and some of the other ILNP flakies are sold out, but the second they are restocked, I'll be standing in line with my credit card.

And because you should always matte all the flakies...

(although I actually prefer this polish shiny because the color shift is more vibrant)

The second polish I have for you today is Tinsel Town from another indie brand called Polish Me Silly. Although this brand released a flakie collection around the same time that opague multichrome flakies were released, keep in mind that this polish does not contain opague glitter. Rather, it uses transparent iridiscent glitter and works best as a topper over a dark color. But that doesn't make it any less gorgeous, take a look!

This polish reminds me of a carnival! There are so many different colors in here, its hard to keep track. The ones that stand out to me the most are red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. But just as with Electric Carnival, depending on your view and light source, you may see a few more.

Shown here is one coat of Tinsel Town (transparent iridesecent flakies
in a clear base) over gray and black. As you can see, Tinsel Town looks
nice over the gray, but really pops over black. For this kind of
flakie, definitely stick with a darker color. I found the formula to be a
little on the thick side, but after a few drops of thinner, it was
fine. What I really like about this polish is that the flakies are less
densely packed into the polish, so with one coat of Tinsel Town, you get
a nice balance of base color and flakies.

Tinsel Town can be found on the Polish Me Silly website. It retails for $11.50 which is a pretty good price considering most of the flakies I have seen cost $12-$13. At the moment, the Polish Me Silly store is closed, but should be re-opening soon. Make sure to check out their other flakies! Inferno and Peacock are also gorgeous.

And now for the fun part...Here's the bad news: Unfortunately, as I mentioned, these polishes aren't currently available.

The good news: However, I liked these polishes so much that I thought you would too!

So I picked up a few extra bottles :)

Happy Holidays Giveaway

To celebrate the holidays and as a thank you for your continued support, I am giving away some fun stuff, including the flakie polishes discussed in this post! (but don't worry! You'll get new, unswatched bottles lol)

And to make sure that more people have a chance to win, there will be two prizes available!

This giveaway will run starting today 12/19 until 12/31 at midnight (EST).
Please see giveaway rules and info before entering. Giveaway Rules and Info

~ US entries only please (or U.S. mailing address for those overseas)

~ No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. Unfollowers will be banned from future giveaways.

~ All winning entries will be verified.

~ While I will package the items for safe shipping, On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish cannot be held responsible for replacing items that become damaged (i.e. broken polish) during shipping.

~ The prize packages will be mailed as shown in the above photos (in other words, winner's cannot pick what they want from each prize group and end up with both ILNP polishes or both Funky Finger's polishes.)

~ The giveaway will begin today (12/19) and end on 12/31 at midnight. On the morning of January 1st, two winner's will be chosen (by raffle-copter), announced on my Facebook page, and contacted via email. The first person to respond to my email will be able to chose which prize they would prefer (prize 1 or prize 2). The remaining winner will receive the remaining prize. Both winners, after being picked and contacted, will have until 8PM (EST) on Friday the 2nd to respond and choose their prize. Otherwise, a runner up will be chosen.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Hello everyone! Well, if you have been paying attention the past few weeks, you've probably noticed that there's non stop Christmas music playing on every radio station, there are Chistmas lights in every window, and every single store is packed full of panicked shoppers. 'Tis definitely the season.

But let's not forget that the holiday season isn't just about presents and shiny lights.

For those of us in the nail world, we all know that this season is all about fun holiday nail art!

Oh! And friends and family. Let's not forget about them, too :) lol But onto the nail art!

For this look, I combined two stunning shades by Milani and Julep. For my base, I used two coats of Julep Jameson, a more red than burgundy, burgundy red (I hope that made sense).

I'm pretty sure I have described my love/hate relationship with Julep polishes before. I have been a Julep Maven for a while now (meaning I have a monthly subscription) and always enjoy getting their nail mail. However, .27 ounces of polish (compared to a normal bottle of polish which is .4 or .5 ounces) sometimes just doesn't do it for me. I mean, I do love their beauty products and cuticle oil and the formula in their polishes is nice. But sometimes receiving .27 ounces of polish (especially of a color you really love) feels like getting a half eaten sandwhich or buying a bottle of water that's half empty. Any one else feel this way?

Anyway, after using Jameson as my base, I added Milani Ruby Jewels (a sparkly red jelly) on my pinkie, middle finger, and thumb. To really make this mani pop, I used Chain Reaction (small chain decals) from Sally Hansen and some 3D nail art bows to make my fingers look like small wrapped Christmas gifts.

No, this look isn't entirely practical. Although the bows were pretty small (and the backing of the bows were neatly curved to fit around my nail), they kept getting stuck in
my hair when I went to comb it lol. However, I had so much fun with this design and would definitely wear it again, maybe to a special Christmas event. I purchased the bows at a
nail/beauty wholesaler that closed a few months ago. However, after some research, I found these little beauties on ebay and they look like they would work just as well!

Stay tuned for more holiday nail art! And maybe a holiday giveaway post...that might be up by Friday. Hint, hint :) Thanks for stopping by!

Like what you see? Check out my other designs on pinterest!
Milani - Ruby Jewels
Julep - Jameson